Cartridge belt



July 31, 1934. s VALKENBURG 1,968,725

CARTRIDGE BELT Filed July 10, 1953- s Sheets-Sheet 1 a 2 a d waif/2 2M J a;

July 31, 1934. s, VALKENBURG 1,968,725

CARTRIDGE BELT Filed July 10, 1933 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 July 31, 1934. s. VALKENBURG I 1,968,725

CARTRIDGE BELT Filed July 10, 1935 3 SheetsSheet 3 Patented July 31, 1934 P TE T FFI E 1,968,725 CARTRIDGE BELT. Simon Valkenburg, S cherpenz eel, Netherlands Application July-10,1933, Serial No. 679,781 l 1 1 In theNetherlands May 12, 1931 r l 1 Claim. (015139-390) The invention relates to acartridge belt woven substantially in one piece with a spacing'partipockets.

Heretofore cartridge belts for machine guns have been made of two separate strips of webbing or tape, laid one upon another and connected at intervals by narrow strips of brass, the intervening portions of the tape being left unconnected to form the necessary open ended pockets or cells for the cartridges.

It has also been proposed to weave in a loom two separate webs or tapes and to unite them in the same loom at equal intervals to obtain a two-ply belt, both edges of which are provided with interwoven longitudinal reinforcements and the cells or pockets of which at the edge adapted to receive the cartridge bullets are conically narrowed.

,, they are inserted into and passed through the machine gun and giving rise to less inconvenience and possibilities of breakdown.

According to the invention the places, where the woven spacing partitions merge into the cell walls are woven exclusively by means of crossing warp threads in such a manner that the inner circumference of the cells along its full length corresponds with the outer circumference of the cartridge and part of the warp threads from the one side of the fabric always pass to the other side thereof, while a remaining part of the warp threads remains at the upper or at the lower side of the complex fabric.

The above combination permits the obtaining .46 of a cartridge belt which meets with the necessary requirements.

Further, a cartridge belt according to the invention may be woven in such a manner that at the side for the cartridge case four groups each comprising approximately 36 warp threads and at the side for the cartridge bullet six groups each comprising approximately 32 warp threads may be provided, each group being woven with a tension of approximately 8 kg. per group, i. e., during weaving each group of threads is loaded with an 8 kg. weight, in order to obtain the desired warp tension distributed in the desired manner. The belt may be woven as a hollow fabric with two layers of weft threads, e. g. 64

weft threads per repeat. The yarn number in.

that case maybe No. 28-32. Preferably the weave I of such a belt being a four harness twill. tion between succeeding cartridge cells or j ings one practical embodiment of the invention In the accompanying diagrammatical drawis illustrated by way of example.

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the cartridge belt according to the invention,

Fig. 2 is a corresponding edge view of the belt showing flat cartridge cells with intermediate spaces and a cartridge cell in open position,

Fig. 3 shows a portion of Fig. 2 on an enlarged scale,

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the cartridge belt for the length of one repeat on a scale four times as large as that of Fig. 1,

Figs. 5 and 6 show an example of a card drawing, the upper warp threads being indicated by solid black squares and the lower warp threads by crossed squares.

In Fig. 1 the cells or pockets are denoted by 1 and the intervening partitions by 2. The weaving lines are denoted by 3. At the outer surface of the fabric they are approximately straight and parallel to each other. At the interior, the profile of the pockets is formed by means of crossing warp threads 4 (see also Fig. 3).

Fig. 4 shows the outer appearance of a cartridge belt according to the invention having a length of one repeat. This figure illustrates clearly the total absence of external ridges or {85 other reinforcements and also shows a straight line separation between the pockets 1 and the hollow woven partitions 2 said partitions being woven with closed edges.

The portions 5, 6, 7 consist of right hand, left hand, and right-hand-four-harness twill, each sub-portion containing 48 warp threads. The right hand portion 8 contains 192 Warp threads, of which 6 lie nearthe right hand edge, the number of picks being 64. In view of the greater density of the threads in the portion 8 than in the portions 5, 6, and '7, the cartridge belt has a greater axial stiffness at the side receiving the bullet portions of the cartridges.

The crossing warp threads lie alternately at z one side of the hollow complex fabric and at the other side for forming the cartridge profile; other warp threads remain at one and the same side of the complex fabric.

In Fig. 2 the crossing of the warp threads be- SE05 tween the sides of the fabric is indicated at 3.

Figs. 5 and 6 show the corresponding card drawing, which for the sake of convenience is divided into two parts; the upper warp normally marked in red, is designated by solid black; the 5110 lower warp, normally marked in blue, is now designated by cross lines. This card drawing shows that the line between the parts 5, 6 and 7 (cartridge case side) on the one hand and that the portion 8 (cartridge bullet side) on the other hand comprises 24 threads at the left of the middle, as shown in Fig. 5. The majority of the 24 threads iszdistributedl-a-t the cartridge bullet side, as shown in Fig. 4; therefore zthe'belthas agreater density at the bullet side than at the case side, so that also an advantageous axial stiffness is obtained. g

The partitions 2, between the pockets 1 may be woven solid instead of hollow. The edges 'along the partitions may be woven open .-in case they are woven hollow.

The novel cartridge described eliminates the disadvantages of the belts mentioned .in the in troduction and passes through the machine .gun with such a flexibility, and so smoothly, that a highspeedof firingran be attained .sothat-aamwchine gun :may have a dargernumberof working hours than before. As the novel -belt is aentirely :free :of thickenings, said belt is very smooth and flexible and notwithstanding has a great axial stiffness at the bullet side. The novel belt grips the cartridges over their entire lengths and more firmly than the usual belts.

I claim:

A cartridge belt for machine guns having a plurality of cells and Woven as a composite fabric in one piece and provided with a spacing partiiiion Fbetween succeeding :carltridge cells in which some of the warp threads cross between the layers of the fabric at the places where the spacing gpagrtition merges into the cell walls, while others of the warp threads remain in the same layer of the *fabr'ic, and the crossing of the warp threads is so disposedthat the cells are narrowed at the edge of the belt adapted to receive the bullet portions-of the cartridges, with the warp threads =nearerthe last-mentioned edge of said belt being more densely arranged than those forming the portion of the belt receiving the cases of the car- 'tr-idges to impart-a desired stiffness .to the .-respective portions ef said :bfilt.

SIMON VAIEKENBURG, 

